"The French have an arrangement with their railroads by which a piece of track that is put in for military purposes is paid for by the French Government. If the civil requirements of the railroad grow up to the use of that particular piece of track, then the government is reimbursed by the railroad. We are in the same position toward these railroads as the French Government. At the end of the war the improvements which we make will be surveyed. If they are useful to the railroads our expenditures will be reimbursed. If not, we are at liberty to take up the stuff and clear the ground. Two days ago a semi-official statement was made to the Paris press, reading: "'Americans, in full agreement with the French authorities, are making every effort to carry out, by their own means, the debarkation of their troops in ports, their provisioning as well as their transportation over our railroads. Sidings, large stations, and establishments of every kind are being constructed by the most modern and expeditious processes. One of the warehouses has an area of about 4,000 acres, and it has a cold-storage plant capable of holding several thousand tons of meat. Aviation training camps and repair shops, considerable in size and with the most improved machinery, are being erected on every side.'" FRENCH INDUSTRIAL EXHAUSTION A realistic picture of the industrial exhaustion of France at the close of the war was given by M. Tardieu, General Commissioner for Franco-American war affairs. The war expenses of 120,000,000,000 francs was only a fractional part of the whole loss. Another 50,000,000,000 would have to be raised to secure raw material destroyed during the war. M. Tardieu presented in detail the various items indicating to what extent France had suffered economic disability and paralysis: